Raif Badawi and Saudi "Justice"

"My commitment is... to reject any oppression in the name of religion... a goal that we will reach in a peaceful and law-abiding way." — Raif Badawi.

In another example of Saudi "justice," Badawi's lawyer, Walid Abu'l-Khayr, was jailed. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail, to be followed by a 15-year travel ban.

What is happening to Badawi is a perfect reminder to anyone who claims to be "offended" by "Islamophobia" why it might exist, who is to blame for it, and that it is precisely behavior such as this that justifies it.

You may have seen the face of Raif Badawi, a young Saudi man, or a short article about him, or impressive efforts by The Independent, to bring attention to the cruel punishments inflicted on him by a series of deeply illiberal Saudi courts: 1000 lashes -- "very harshly," the flogging order read -- to be administered 50 at time for 20 weeks, or five months.

Raif Badawi is a 31-year old author, blogger and social activist, who gently tried to introduce just the smallest traces of enlightened thinking to the government and the religious elite of Saudi Arabia from his home in Jeddah.

He did this mainly through a website and public forum entitled, "Free Saudi Liberals." An example of what he is now to be flogged to death for goes: "My commitment is... to reject any repression in the name of religion... a goal that we will reach in a peaceful and law-abiding way."

It is for unspeakable thoughts such as this that the Saudi authorities have come down on him with such cruelty as to make themselves look globally like a pack group of insatiable, perverted, sadistic, sexual deviants.

Raif Badawi and his children, before he was jailed.

Badawi's life is in serious danger. He was detained briefly in 2008, on a charge of apostasy -- a crime that carries the death sentence in the Saudi kingdom. In the following year, his bank accounts were frozen and he was banned from travelling outside the country.

He was arrested again on June 17, 2012, in Jeddah, after organizing a conference to mark a "day of liberalism." The conference, which was to have taken place in Jeddah on May 7, was banned by the authorities. Several months later, on December 17, 2012, he first appeared before a General Court in Jeddah. This was not a court in the Western sense of the word, with jury selection, evidence, discovery, and so on. The vast majority of courts in Saudi Arabia are Shari'a courts, operating according to the rules of Islamic law and presided over by state-appointed clerics ('ulama). On this occasion,the charges against Badawi were outside the norms of international law: "setting up a website that undermines general security," "ridiculing Islamic religious figures," and "going beyond the realm of obedience." Some days later, the court decided to proceed with the charge of apostasy. More months passed, and on July 13, 2013 it was reported that Badawi had been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and 600 lashes for violating Islamic values and propagating liberal thought. His website was shut down.

But the Saudi judges were not done with him yet. On December 26, 2013 a judge recommended that he be brought before a higher court on the apostasy charge, then on May 7, 2014 his sentence was increased, now totaling 1000 lashes followed by ten years in prison and a large fine of around $260,000.

To make matters worse, in another example of Saudi "justice," Badawi's lawyer, Walid Abu'l-Khayr (Waleed Abulkhair), was jailed.

Abu'l-Khayr, from a prominent family of religious judges and clerics, had been listed in Forbes magazine as one of the top 100 Arab writers on Twitter. His wife, Samar, is Raif Badawi's sister. Abu'l-Khayr had set up an organization named "Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia." He was sentenced to 15 years in jail, to be followed by a 15-year travel ban.

On January 9, 2015, Raif Badawi received the first of his planned twenty flogging sessions: 50 lashes each time, to be delivered after Friday noon prayers outside Jeddah's al-Jafali Mosque, across the road from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Badly hurt -- he is a diabetic and physically frail -- he faced almost certain death long before his punishment could be brought to an end. Doctors advised delay, and for many weeks, he was not subjected to further floggings.

In the meantime, an international campaign for his release started in earnest. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations across the West featured his story prominently. Everyone agreed that the prescribed punishments were cruel, inhuman, and degrading, and that the floggings amounted to torture, illegal under international law.

Criticism of Saudi inhumanity went to very high levels in Europe and North America. The U.S. State Department issued a strong statement on the affair. The National Assembly of Quebec passed a unanimous motion in condemnation. Britain's Prince Charles, long familiar with the Saudi kingdom, raised the issue with the new King Salman. On March 3, 2015, sixty-seven members of the U.S. Congress sent a bipartisan letter to King Salman, calling for the release of all prisoners of conscience, including Badawi and Abu'l-Khayr.

The Swedish government, in protest at the conviction, went so far as to cancel an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Seldom have the Saudis come under such a volume of international criticism as they have done over this one affair. A discreet retreat and the freeing of Badawi and Abu'l-Khayr might have paid off well for a country with a new monarch, facing terrorism on all sides, and negotiating help in its counter-terrorism efforts even from Israel.

But to renewed outrage around the world, it was reported on June 7 that the Saudi Supreme Court -- originally thought to herald reform in the judicial system -- has confirmed Badawi's sentence finally in all respects. The only possible reprieve now would be a royal pardon. The judgement is, in effect, a slow, bloodthirsty, agonizing, death sentence handed to a man whose only concern was to speak gently but honestly in a country so backward that it prefers the outrages and injustices of seventh-century Arabia to anything, such as mercy, in the twenty-first century -- the technology of which the Saudis are all too happy to avail themselves.

The Saudis cannot have it both ways. On one level, they are only too happy to join the modern world, building skyscrapers, funding universities, training scientists, and benefiting from the many luxuries and conveniences the Western world offers them. On another level, they reject everything that makes the West strong -- freedom of conscience, thought and speech, an equal role for women in society, tolerance of other religions and philosophies, and the acceptance of either international law or the most elemental human rights.

Tomorrow, governments and rights organizations, along with ordinary citizens, will meet to plan their response to this abuse of decency.

If Raif Badawi is flogged again, and if he should die, his wife be widowed and his children orphaned, and the reputation of Saudi Arabia, already mired in the mud, will sink to a point beyond which it may never regain the trust or support of anyone. There is already unrest in the kingdom. The Saudi kingdom and its extremist cult of Wahhabism, its clerical elite, and its pompous princes know that they face attack from the Islamic State, and from Iran in Yemen and across the Gulf. Young Saudis, bribed and brainwashed though so many are, are not fools.

The Saudi Supreme Court's judgement is worse than burying one's head in the sands of the Empty Quarter [al-rub' al khali], a large, almost uncrossable desert in Saudi Arabia. It is an admission of a complete inability to change, even while the world around it is shifting out of control.

What is happening to Badawi is also a perfect reminder to anyone who claims to be "offended" by "Islamophobia," why it might exist, who is to blame for it, and that it is precisely behavior such as this that justifies it.

Everyone who thinks and feels will continue to work and pray for Raif Badawi's release and his return to his wife and children at their home in Canada, where they obtained political asylum in 2013.

Denis MacEoin is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a former lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies.

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19 Reader Comments

monique sheikh • Jul 2, 2015 at 10:50

Thanks for such an exact critique of Raif situation MacEoin, our thoughts are with him and his family, and the even more political critique of the 'Saudi Kingdom menace to all Muslims and non muslims'.

They, the Saudis, have played such a destablizing role through its funding and spread of its 'brand wahhabi' in madrases in Pakistan, Saudi, Bangladesh and throughout the Muslim world, that they are so responsible for their 'wahhabi fascism' coming full circle in the guise of ISIS and all such groups, Jihadis and Islamist running rampant in the Middle East, Asia and Nigeria, and Europe respectively.

They must know they have unleashed their own doom...its the ordinary right minded people of Arabia and the rest of humanity that I have serious concerns about regarding what they, the Saudis have unleashed on the rest of us through ISIS/Daesh and such.

The world community should hold them responsible for their part in this current Islamic danger. The tenets of Wahhabism/Islam is anti-humanity or death to everyone who is not 'Brand Wahhabi' or a 'Saudi princelings'.

European authorities should be aware of this by now, and be aware of their dealings with the Saud Family on behalf of their nation states and its people.

Pakistan has started to wake up to Wahhabism, they were busy importing so willingly, even they see how 'brand wahhabi' has destabilized their country with hate-filled clerics and mullahs, and led to Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda and ISIS etc terrorizing Pakistani Cities and Communities everyday.

This inhuman and degrading punishment of Raif will not be forgotten by the world...I just wish our authorities could be more like Sweden.

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Five Minutes for Israel • Jun 10, 2015 at 17:18

Beyond satire.

Much of the media reported on Badawi but missed this.At the same time as Badawi's sentence was confirmed Saudi Arabia hosted a UN-backed human rights summit 'on combating religious discrimination'!

Beyond satire. Much of the media reported on Raif Badawi but missed this. At the same time as Badawi's sentence was confirmed, Saudi Arabia hosted a UN-backed human rights summit on "combating religious discrimination"!

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Sir Randeville Flash • Jun 9, 2015 at 07:56

There is no excuse for the onlooking civilized world to tolerate such barbaric behavior by any regime. If Iraq and Afghanistan can be invaded to fight Islamism and medieval authoritarian dross, then Saudi is fair game. Do not let their oil wealth dissolve the ardor for advancement and progress. We must insist upon it.

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Jac • Jun 9, 2015 at 07:13

For as long as the Middle East has oil, all Western governments will continue to kowtow to the Saudi's corrupt and inhuman regime.

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Peter Brewster • Jun 9, 2015 at 00:53

Good disclosure to all. Keep it up, much appreciated as are so many of your pieces

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Amy • Jun 8, 2015 at 23:15

Thank you for your very good work, and in particular on this occasion, for publicising the plight of Raif Badawi.

In an effort to make more widely known both the Gatestone Institute and what is happening to Raif Badawi and his family, I have sent on your article within New Zealand, to help get it as much coverage as possible.

Thank you for your brave stand against the corruption of these times.

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Alison • Jun 8, 2015 at 21:26

Raif Badawi is a brave man and a noble soul. He has my deepest admiration.

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Peter Terry • Jun 8, 2015 at 19:55

The Saudi government has not found an exit plan that does not undermine its legitimacy, its authority or its legal system. It won't take action that results in losing face or being perceived as weak, especially now, when it feels that Saudi society is under attack from Iran and its Shi'ite partners and proxies. The exit plan would have to permit Badawi and others like him to leave Saudi Arabia, and would have to protect the Saudi regime from having to deal with such dissidents on their own turf. Perhaps they could be "banished for life", because of their "heretical and anti-government behavior". Perhaps they could be stripped of their Saudi citizenship as well. The message to Saudis would then be clear, that the government will not tolerate free speech if it violates current norms (which are Wahhabi and monarchical); but that the government will permit Saudis to emigrate and become citizens of other countries, if they prefer not to tow the line. Outsiders need to employ strategies that will help protect those who advocate change while recognizing that the Saudi ruling class will not be hurried into modernization or liberalization of any kind.

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Rick Coleman • Jun 8, 2015 at 14:41

The West created this mess. We allow it to continue and show that we have no backbone. So they have lots of oil and lots of States want it. They could all they want at a lower price if we choose to cut off the nozzle from these spoiled desert children for a while and at the same time achieve real change in their behavior. It is our fault for allowing it to continue and facilitating it.

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David Nussbaum • Jun 8, 2015 at 14:22

Although virtually everyone is aghast at this brutality, the Politically Correct will not "connect the dots" to examine the "root cause" of the impending miscarriage of fundamental justice. Badawi's flogging is simply another example of Sharia in action. If you really believe that all religions are equal, that we should not be judgmental and consequently not criticize Islam, then just let the Sharia take its course, and continue to accept the moral equivalence of the inverted Post-Modern world.

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Purushottam Deshmukh • Jun 8, 2015 at 13:35

Mr Denis MacEoin's heart-rending appeal for Mr Raif Badawi's release from Saudi prison must not fall to deaf ears. If we the civilized world win this war against inhuman forces, our victory shall time and often symbolically and solemnly remind us of our thoroughly being human.

However, huge advancement in the field of science & technology and in the domain of arts and letters have not changed us a bit. Our writers and poets in the first quarter of the twenty first century are abnormally alert to catch in words even the slightest of movements of the darker recesses of the subconscious. Unfortunately, we cannot claim it to be a change. This is obsessive compulsive disorder. This is not a change!

Almost hundred years back, the Irish Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats intuitively put in words of what was waiting to be existed in the West:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...The best lack all convicitions, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.

The world was ushering in post-modern era. Under this huge wave, very few could retain graceful living. The rest viewed life a mere play -- over a meaningful one. Life being a constant discovery had instead been a chance or process. The idea of life had been and is still that of flat surface where one rolls along as a glass marble. The huge sense of otherness one needs while safeguarding liberties and natural rights of fellow beings is being drained away.

Postmodernism has brought abut a complete collapse of our hierarchical mode of thinking. But aren't we yet slavish before the savages? They trample upon our earnest requests. Saudi judiciary is a farce though, we too are no better than Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet. Trying to probe the cause of his procrastination, the prince observes: "Thus conscience makes cowards of us all!"

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Elena • Jun 8, 2015 at 12:35

I don't know what you do with a situation like this. Maybe it takes the sacrifices of many to convince Saudi and other Muslim societies that change must occur or these countries will die. Maybe you change Islam by showing people its ugliest behaviors such as in the case of ISIS, Saudi Arabia, Qatar (which bankrolls terrorism to the hilt) and the West.

I am of the belief that Saudi Arabia will eventually implode -- either literally or figuratively -- this situation cannot go on, no matter how they try to push the insanity under the rug or rename it Islamic values and sensibilities.

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isabel steffens • Jun 8, 2015 at 09:58

Saudi Arabia ought to be ashamed of itself.

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Fred • Jun 8, 2015 at 09:24

The Saudis won a seat in the UN, wait for it, Human Rights.Most deserving paragons of human rights. They show compassion to Badawi ?They have those beheadings of women in public places and abide as it seems to Sharia an arbitrary law, no proof nor evidence is required. A primitive people that still abide by the arbitrary law of the desert, yet decking themselves with the accoutrement of the West. Rich money grubbers with very little compassion for others. It is written in the book.

Israel has full freedom of religion, free speech, and there is NO apartheid in Israel.

The lie about apartheid has been spread by the Muslim/Arab world to delegitimize Israel in the eyes of the world.

In Israel, the Christian population is growing, and in the Muslim/Islamic world, the Christian population is diminishing because of the treatment and murder of Christians.

Time for the world to wake up and start to support Israel. Time for those countries which have "recognized' a Palestinian state on Jewish God-given land, should withdraw their recognition of a Palestinian state. Their recognition has encouraged the arch terrorist and murderer, Mahmoud Abbas, not to negotiate for peace.

The Pope has caused more problems for Israel with his recognizing a PA state, and calling Abbas an Angel of peace.

While there have been no negotiations with Israel, the world should have told Abbas to talk peace with Israel. She now does not have to talk peace.

The Pope names murderers of Jews as heroes and names schools, streets etc after those murderers.

Abbas has convinced the world that Israel does not want to talk peace.

Visit Saudi with a Christian Bible, you will face huge problems. There are no churches in Saudi. No other religion except Islam is allowed in Saudi.

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Dennis • Jun 8, 2015 at 07:10

The US should break relations with the Saudis over this and other issues. But I guess petroleum-dollars will win the day. We should be using alternative fuels so that we are not ruled by the so-called Royal House of Saudi Arabia. I often wonder how the American government can sleep at night! The land of the free supports the land of Islamic feudalistic slavery!

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Rowan Shann Dennis • Jun 9, 2015 at 01:29

Having seen film of Obama doubling over in his low bow to the previous King of Saudi Arabia, I am afraid the torture and probable death of Raif Badawi would not sit heavily on his conscience. And he has done so many awful things in his time as President -- allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons, prosecuting Christians in the Armed Forces for being Christians, forcing gay activist doctrine into schools, to name just a few -- that one can only be surprised that no group in the USA has so far moved to impeach him.

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Albert • Jun 8, 2015 at 07:03

Shariah law in full display! Wonder why people are against any wefts of this Shariah? And another thing, does this explain a President of the USA bowing deeply to a King who is a main supporter of such a system of law? Is this embarrassing to remember this event?

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, a prisoner in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to death as a minor, faces "death by crucifixion" after a final appeal has been dismissed. He was arrested in 2012 when he was just 17, during a crackdown on anti-government protests in the Shiite province of Qatif. According to the International Business Times, Al-Nimr was accused by the authorities of participation in illegal protests and of firearms offences, despite there being no evidence to justify the latter charge.